Opposition increases pressure for hearings on cancelled gas plants

TORONTO -- Ontario's opposition parties are stepping up the pressure on incoming premier Kathleen Wynne for hearings into cancelled gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga.

The Progressive Conservatives say as Liberal campaign co-chair in 2011, Wynne was involved in the politically-motivated decisions to cancel the two gas plants, costing taxpayers at least $230 million.

The Tories are demanding legislative hearings into the gas plants as soon as the legislature is recalled next month, while the New Democrats want a public inquiry.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the ball is clearly in Wynne's court, and warns "one way or another" the Liberals are going to have to answer for their decisions.

Horwath says it's anti-democratic when "ruling elites take money from the public and use it to keep themselves in power."

Wynne wouldn't address the issue of hearings into the cancelled gas plants, and said she wants to have talks with the opposition parties on a wider range of issues.

Premier Dalton McGuinty blamed the almost non-stop debate over the gas plants for proroguing the legislature when he resigned last October just hours before committee hearings into the cancelled projects were scheduled to begin.